Lam Research Corp. (LRCX) Raised to “Buy” at Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Investment Research upgraded shares of Lam Research Corp. (NASDAQ:LRCX) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Monday. The brokerage currently has $121.00 price target on the stock.

According to Zacks, “Lam Research Corp. is a leading global provider of innovative wafer fabrication equipment and services to the semiconductor industry. Over the last one year, the stock has underperformed the Zacks characterized Semi-Equipment Wafer Fab industry. In the last reported first quarter, the results were driven by strong success in the areas of device architecture, process flow and advanced packaging technology inflections. The company terminated its proposed acquisition of California-based KLA-Tencor, following antitrust objections from the Justice Department. The company has been improving on WFE market share significantly since 2013 and expects to continue making gains, going forward. At the same time, the persistent decline in the PC market, which is still the most important consumer of DRAMs, the competitive climate and currency effects remain concerns. The Brexit impact cannot be ignored either.”

LRCX has been the topic of a number of other reports. RBC Capital Markets restated an outperform rating and issued a $105.00 price objective on shares of Lam Research Corp. in a report on Sunday, October 9th. Needham & Company LLC restated a buy rating and issued a $120.00 price objective (up from $115.00) on shares of Lam Research Corp. in a report on Monday, October 17th. Bank of America Corp. restated a buy rating and issued a $115.00 price objective on shares of Lam Research Corp. in a report on Monday, November 21st. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. initiated coverage on shares of Lam Research Corp. in a report on Tuesday, October 25th. They issued a neutral rating and a $104.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Lam Research Corp. from $110.00 to $116.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Monday, November 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have issued a buy rating to the company. The company presently has an average rating of Buy and a consensus price target of $111.24.

Shares of Lam Research Corp. (NASDAQ:LRCX) opened at 111.24 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.08 and a beta of 1.49. Lam Research Corp. has a 12-month low of $63.10 and a 12-month high of $111.29. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $106.40 and a 200 day moving average of $97.32.

Lam Research Corp. (NASDAQ:LRCX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 19th. The company reported $1.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.03. Lam Research Corp. had a net margin of 15.02% and a return on equity of 18.43%. The business had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.82 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Lam Research Corp. will post $8.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 4th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 14th were given a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 12th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.62%. This is a boost from Lam Research Corp.’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. Lam Research Corp.’s payout ratio is presently 35.79%.

In other Lam Research Corp. news, insider Martin B. Anstice sold 16,000 shares of Lam Research Corp. stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.54, for a total transaction of $1,608,640.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Timothy Archer sold 5,000 shares of Lam Research Corp. stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.42, for a total transaction of $537,100.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Lam Research Corp. by 149.5% in the second quarter. FMR LLC now owns 10,317,149 shares of the company’s stock worth $867,259,000 after buying an additional 6,182,540 shares during the last quarter. TIAA CREF Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Lam Research Corp. by 104.9% in the third quarter. TIAA CREF Investment Management LLC now owns 2,493,735 shares of the company’s stock worth $236,182,000 after buying an additional 1,276,856 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Lam Research Corp. by 209.6% in the second quarter. BlackRock Investment Management LLC now owns 1,093,309 shares of the company’s stock worth $91,904,000 after buying an additional 740,148 shares during the last quarter. Criterion Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Lam Research Corp. by 187.6% in the second quarter. Criterion Capital Management LLC now owns 1,059,055 shares of the company’s stock worth $89,024,000 after buying an additional 690,855 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Lam Research Corp. by 40.8% in the second quarter. Janus Capital Management LLC now owns 2,103,641 shares of the company’s stock worth $176,832,000 after buying an additional 609,780 shares during the last quarter.

About Lam Research Corp.

Lam Research Corporation is a supplier of wafer fabrication equipment and services to the semiconductor industry. The Company designs, manufactures, markets, refurbishes and services semiconductor processing systems that are used in the fabrication of integrated circuits (ICs). It operates through manufacturing and servicing of wafer processing semiconductor manufacturing equipment segment.

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